Effect of treated farm dairy effluents, with or without animal urine, on nitrous oxide emissions, ammonia oxidisers and denitrifiers in the soil

Abstract

Purpose: In New Zealand, the application of farm dairy effluent (FDE) on pasture soils is the third largest source of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from grazed grassland. Recently, new FDE treatment technologies have been developed to produce clarified water (CW) and treated effluent (TE) to recycle water and reduce the volume of fresh water used at the farm dairy. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of CW and TE with those of FDE on N2O emissions and the growth of ammonia-oxidising bacteria (AOB), ammonia-oxidising archaea (AOA) and denitrifiers, when the effluents were applied to a grazed pasture soil. Materials and methods: A microcosm incubation study was carried out to dete..